Title

Silver nanowire/optical adhesive coatings as transparent electrodes for flexible electronics

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-23-2013

Publication Title

ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

Volume

5

Issue

20

First Page

10165

Keywords

electrodes, flexible electronics, functional coatings, nanowires, organic electronics

Last Page

10172

Abstract

We present new flexible, transparent, and conductive coatings composed of an annealed silver nanowire network embedded in a polyurethane optical adhesive. These coatings can be applied to rigid glass substrates as well as to flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic and elastomeric polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates to produce highly flexible transparent conductive electrodes. The coatings are as conductive and transparent as indium tin oxide (ITO) films on glass, but they remain conductive at high bending strains and are more durable to marring and scratching than ITO. Coatings on PDMS withstand up to 76% tensile strain and 250 bending cycles of 15% strain with a negligible increase in electrical resistance. Since the silver nanowire network is embedded at the surface of the optical adhesive, these coatings also provide a smooth surface (root mean squared surface roughness <10 nm), making them suitable as transparent conducting electrodes in flexible light-emitting electrochemical cells. These devices continue to emit light even while being bent to radii as low as 1.5 mm and perform as well as unstrained devices after 20 bending cycles of 25% tensile strain. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

DOI

10.1021/am402847y

ISSN

19448244

E-ISSN

19448252

PubMed ID

24007382

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